Priority still pandemic control

As the push, and desire, for normalcy grows stronger, a chain of infections traced in Harbin serves as chilling proof of how things could take a turn for the worse if we do not keep our guard up and maintain the strictest vigilance.

One person who returned to the northeastern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, from the United States on March 19, the same individual we mentioned last Friday, who at that time was thought to have infected five others, reportedly infected 50 people in a matter of 30 days.

Seven of the eight new infections reported in Heilongjiang on Friday, and all eight reported on Saturday, originated from this person. And considering countless others who have unknowingly crossed ways with the dozens confirmed to have been infected, one of whom was not diagnosed until he traveled to hundreds-of-miles-away Liaoning province, this chain of infections may extend even longer.

With the lockdown lifted on Wuhan, capital of Hubei, the place in China worst hit by the novel coronavirus, there were hopes that we were just about to step into a post-outbreak stage.

After dozens of weeks being told to stay safe by staying at home, people are eager to return to their normal lives again. People can’t wait to get together like they used to. Parents want schools to reopen, especially those who have kids graduating from high school and attending what is perhaps the most important test in their lifetime — the national college entrance examinations.

Businesses, big and small, need to start running again, preferably at full capacity, to make up for what has been lost due to their unexpected shutdowns.

And our bleeding economy, which dropped 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, which was the first quarterly recession since 1992, needs to get back on track, as soon as possible.

But clearly, as we have repeatedly been warned, getting back to normal is going to take some time. Keeping the pandemic under control has to take precedence over anything else. No matter how eager we are for the long overdue return to life as it used to be just a few months ago, the case in Harbin shows how important it is to remain prudent.

The central leadership has just called for efforts to guarantee employment, subsistence, business viability, grain and energy security, stability of industrial and supply chains and the functioning of grassroots administration, and rightly so, but it also stressed that while steadying the economic fundamentals and securing people’s basic livelihoods, efforts must be made to ensure that the epidemic will not rebound.

In this regard, the country will have to bolster border defenses against imported infections and ensure COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control measures are in place when getting people back to work.

But if we remain circumspect, and people continue to do their bit in the fight against the virus and do not succumb to impatience, the undoubted improvement in the domestic pandemic situation can be consolidated.